He called upon that lawyer, and was
astounded to hear that during his absence from England a fortune of
L15,000 had been left to him by an aunt in Australia.
Joe Westlake on this took a little house in the Stepney district, and
endeavoured to settle down as an east-end gent; but his efforts to
ride to a shore-going anchor were hopeless. His mind was always
roaming. He had followed the sea man and boy for hard upon fifty
years, and the cry of his heart was still for water--water without
rum!--water fresh or salt! it mattered not what sort of water it was
so long as it _was_--water.
So as Joe Westlake found that he couldn't rest ashore he looked about
him, and, after a while, fell in with and purchased a smart little
cutter, which he re-christened the _Tom Bowling_, out of admiration of
the song which no sailor ever sang more sweetly than he. It was
perfectly consistent with his traditions as a man-of-wars man that,
having bought his little ship, he should arm her. He equipped her with
four small carronades and a pivoted brass six-pounder on the
forecastle. He then went to work to man her, but he did not very
easily find a crew. Joe was fastidious in his ideas of seamen, and
though some whom he cast his eye upon came very near to his taste, it
cost him a great deal of trouble to discover the particular set of
Jacks he wanted.
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